The number of commercial corruption cases coming before Chinese
courts rose steeply to 5,662 in the first nine months of 2006
despite harsher penalties, according to the Supreme People's Court
(SPC).
Xiong Xuanguo, vice president of the SPC, said courts at all
levels dealt with 5,429 commercial bribery cases involving civil
servants during the first three quarters, up 10.43 percent
year-on-year.
The cases involved public officials charged with accepting
bribes from commercial organizations in return for exerting
influence or providing services.
The remaining 233 cases involved company employees receiving
handouts from other companies in return for business favors akin to
insider trading, up 3.51 percent from the same period last year, he
said.
"We have intensified penalties for commercial corruption this
year. About 21 percent of criminals convicted in such cases were
jailed for periods of more than five years," said Xiong.
Wang Zhenchuan, deputy procurator-general with the Supreme
People's Procuratorate, said prosecutors investigated over 9,000
commercial corruption cases during the first nine months.
The cases mainly occurred in the fields of construction, land
acquisition, ownership transfers of state-owned enterprises,
government procurement, medicine and medical appliances trade,
banking, securities and futures.
Premier Wen
Jiabao early in the year pledged to prioritize the tackling of
commercial corruption eliminate persistent problems that have
infringed upon the public interests as well as strengthening the
management of public servants.
(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2006)